defense spending. where is the bulk of the money going?

[BlahBlahYouToo]

the hundreds of billions that are spent in defense (incl. homeland sec.) each year, where is the bulk of that going?
salaraies? weapons? systems? R&D?

 

[matt0611]

I've never seen a breakdown, not sure if one even exists.

Recently the pentagon claimed it was "too big" to audit.

 

[piasabird]

I would think that logistics is a major problem. It must be difficult to feed arm and clothe soldiers on the other side of the globe. The people that work in construction, and civil contractors are probably all making more than $100,000 + every year.

 

[JTsyo]

Wiki has a break down

Components↓ 	         Funding↓ 	
Operations and maintenance 	$283.3 billion 	
Military Personnel 	        $154.2 billion 	
Procurement 	                $140.1 billion 	
Research, Development, Testing & Evaluation 	$79.1 billion 	
Military Construction 	        $23.9 billion 	
Family Housing 	                $3.1 billion 	
[B]Total Spending 	          $685.1 billion 	[/B]

 

[piasabird]

Is this for one year or one quarter or what?

That is not broken down enough to tell what it is really spent on.
Operations and Maintenance could mean anything from transporting equipment to paying for armored patrol vehicles to replacing tanks and planes, to ammunition and medical supplies. This probably does not include the expenditures in the states for medical care for severely wounded veterans. How much does it cost to replace a leg with a titanium prosthesis?

Then there is the cost of the Navy to deal with for air support and port security. Then the Air force is flying bombers, attack planes, and those gunships that can fill every square inch of a football field with a round. Then there are the Army Cargo, Personnel, and attack helicopters and the required fuel and ammo.

I wonder how much is considered off-budget?

Humanitarian Aid?
Civilian Construction?
If you dont keep civilians fed, then disease takes over.

 

[Dominato3r]

That is not broken down enough to tell what it is really spent on.
Operations and Maintenance could mean anything from transporting equipment to paying for armored patrol vehicles to replacing tanks and planes, to ammunition and medical supplies. This probably does not include the expenditures in the states for medical care for severely wounded veterans. How much does it cost to replace a leg with a titanium prosthesis?

I saw a pdf with a breakdown of the spending before but I cant seem to find it.

I found this one, but I'm not sure if this is what I saw last time (2009): http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/budget/defense.pdf

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Hammers and toilet seats.

 

[gevorg]

the money is being spend on taking over the world

 

[manimal]

dude area 51 too

 

[CallMeJoe]

Wherever it's going, both major parties still seem to think it's not enough...

 

[Schadenfroh]

Paid for graduate school.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Is this for one year or one quarter or what?

That is not broken down enough to tell what it is really spent on.
Operations and Maintenance could mean anything from transporting equipment to paying for armored patrol vehicles to replacing tanks and planes, to ammunition and medical supplies. This probably does not include the expenditures in the states for medical care for severely wounded veterans. How much does it cost to replace a leg with a titanium prosthesis?

Then there is the cost of the Navy to deal with for air support and port security. Then the Air force is flying bombers, attack planes, and those gunships that can fill every square inch of a football field with a round. Then there are the Army Cargo, Personnel, and attack helicopters and the required fuel and ammo.

I wonder how much is considered off-budget?

Humanitarian Aid?
Civilian Construction?
If you dont keep civilians fed, then disease takes over.

How and where funding acquired for stuff around here is a pretty big deal. I don't think any of what the military spends is off budget. If there's no money stuff doesn't happen.

 

[ShawnD1]

Hammers and toilet seats.

Pretty much this. There's some kind of law of economics where bigger things are inherently inefficient. Suppose your computer at work has a dead hard drive, how does it get fixed? Here, the computer would be express shipped across the country, fixed by some guy who bills it as 8 hours because he also needs to configure it and install a bunch of shit, and the hard drive itself would be 2x what it costs on newegg, then it would be express shipped back.
cost to replace hard drive yourself: $100 + however long it takes to install software
cost for your employer to replace hard drive: $20,000 + 2 weeks of lost time (it arrived next day but the IT guy didn't touch it for two weeks)

On a lot of engineering jobs for large projects, the entire project will be done at least 5 times over because the spec is constantly changing. First they want this wire size, then they want this size, then they change the room temperature so it's a different kind of wire, then they move the motor farther away so it require a bigger wire and bigger conduit, then they move it back so you need to ALKJFSDL:KFJDS:L FDFUCKFL:KDJSFLSD

 

[JTsyo]

Pretty much this. There's some kind of law of economics where bigger things are inherently inefficient. Suppose your computer at work has a dead hard drive, how does it get fixed? Here, the computer would be express shipped across the country, fixed by some guy who bills it as 8 hours because he also needs to configure it and install a bunch of shit, and the hard drive itself would be 2x what it costs on newegg, then it would be express shipped back.
cost to replace hard drive yourself: $100 + however long it takes to install software
cost for your employer to replace hard drive: $20,000 + 2 weeks of lost time (it arrived next day but the IT guy didn't touch it for two weeks)

On a lot of engineering jobs for large projects, the entire project will be done at least 5 times over because the spec is constantly changing. First they want this wire size, then they want this size, then they change the room temperature so it's a different kind of wire, then they move the motor farther away so it require a bigger wire and bigger conduit, then they move it back so you need to ALKJFSDL:KFJDS:L FDFUCKFL:KDJSFLSD

heh Pentagon Wars comes to mind when I see a rant like that.

 

[JSt0rm]

I'm pretty sure anytime a human spends money it ends up going to another human.

 

[shortylickens]

If my experience in the Navy is any indication, most of it gets wasted.
Those planes sure as hell aint worth the money, thats one area.
Most of the radios are older than me, and were overpriced to begin with.

 

[ShawnD1]

If my experience in the Navy is any indication, most of it gets wasted.
Those planes sure as hell aint worth the money, thats one area.
Most of the radios are older than me, and were overpriced to begin with.

The government probably gets suckered into buying Best Buy's extended warranty on them. Those shitbags wanted $200 to warranty a $500 computer. What the hell is that?? I don't doubt for a second some asshole politician said sure let's put the extended warranty on the airplanes. For a 135m jet, the warranty for 2 years is probably 50m.

 

[Abwx]

I'm pretty sure anytime a human spends money it ends up going to another human.

Indeed, shooting one with a machine gun is sending
him some lethal money...

 

[shortylickens]

I'm pretty sure anytime a human spends money it ends up going to another human.

Technically yes, but my beef is because of how government contracts work, most of the defense budget goes into keeping the top 1% at the top 1%.

 

[JTsyo]

The government probably gets suckered into buying Best Buy's extended warranty on them. Those shitbags wanted $200 to warranty a $500 computer. What the hell is that?? I don't doubt for a second some asshole politician said sure let's put the extended warranty on the airplanes. For a 135m jet, the warranty for 2 years is probably 50m.

It's called a service contract and for something like a plane it's needed. The military won't be able to service everything and they'll need replacement parts.

 

[QuantumPion]

I'm pretty sure anytime a human spends money it ends up going to another human.

I'm pretty sure you don't know the first thing about economics. Money is a representation of labor and productivity. When you give someone money for nothing (or in this case gross inefficiency), someone else's labor has gone to waste to pay for it. Wealth is thus destroyed in the process.

 

[ShawnD1]

It's called a service contract and for something like a plane it's needed. The military won't be able to service everything and they'll need replacement parts.

Does the military get hard core ripped off?

here's what best buy pulls
:twisted: Would you like to warranty the hard drive? It's only $100 for 3 years
:hmm: How much would it cost me to just buy a new hard drive without the warranty?
:twisted: Roughly $80

 

[Karl Agathon]

Hopefully a good amount of it is going towards dealing with the Red Dragon. A De-facto enemy of the United States.